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Thursday, August 22, 2013

Baby Mac - 15 Months

Dear Baby Mac,

Fifteen months have passed us by in the blink of an eye. Daily, I am humbled and amazed by how much you've grown and what an incredible little boy you've become. You are so sweet and funny and smart. I have no idea what I did to deserve such a wonderful child. Every day your dad and I have the same conversation...something similar to "You won't believe this, but he got even more amazing today." As much as I think I miss having a little tiny baby to snuggle, I am really enjoying each new thing you do and am so excited to see what new trick you'll learn next. You keep us on our toes, have stolen our hearts and made us the happiest parents in the world.

Physically, you are getting so big! You're still long and lean. We don't have your official stats yet, but I'm sure you're still on track with being around 50th percentile in weight and 95th percentile in height, as you have been at all your past appointments. You probably have just under 15 teeth at this point. I've lost count and I'm too scared to stick my finger in your mouth to find out! I learned my lesson the hard way on that one. You also have so much hair! And it's BLONDE! Almost white-blonde - my little towhead. You have the best little curls in the back and you get the most amazing bed-head after naps (we're never going to cut them). Everyone you meet comments on your beautiful big brown eyes and blonde curls! They say you are a perfect mixture of both me and your dad, which makes us beam with pride.

You are active, active, active! You are not only walking (very well), but running, climbing, jumping, walking backwards, walking sideways and spinning in circles until you're so dizzy you fall down. You love to be chased (by us and the dogs) and we run around the circle in the basement and the island in the kitchen until you are squealing and laughing so hard you have to stop. You can go up and down the stairs with ease and you can climb on the bed/couches and get yourself down pretty easily. You're ticklish under your arms, under your chin and on your thighs and love it when we roll around on the floor tickling you. You close your eyes and scream in delight. It's just wonderful. You are also a total mess, all the time. You're dirty and snotty and sticky and disgusting. All the things a little boy should be. And I love it! You always have dirt under your fingernails and syrup in your hair and leaves down you diaper and scraped knees and bug bites and food on your face. Such a boy! I think that means you're having fun and exploring and being a kid. It's just great.

You are getting more and more vocal and love communicating with us. You don't have a lot of words at this point, maybe because you prefer two-syllable words to easier ones (daddy, outside, upstairs, bubble, golf cart). You are also getting really good with your sign language. Right now you can sign the following words: all done, more, milk, eat, stop, help, airplane, car, cat, gentle, hot, shoes, telephone, thank you, please, water. You also make the most adorable animal noises. My favorites are elephant and cow. So adorable. You love looking through your animal books and making all the noises. You also sing, which is the sweetest sound in the world. You love music. You sing and dance and jump around every time your dad plays the guitar for you. I have a feeling you're going to be playing an instrument in no time.

You are amazingly observant. You watch us intently and then do exactly what we do...you remember, even days later. I'm constantly impressed with how fast you pick up on things, just by watching us. You can see one of us do something just once and you've got it. You also want to do anything and everything we're doing. You love to "help" us around the house. You want to help cook, help vacuum, help drive, help fold laundry, help mow the lawn. We love to let you "help," even if it means the project will take twice as long or we'll just have to do it again later (without your help), because we love watching you learn and figure things out. I really need to make you one of those helper stands for the kitchen so you can watch while I cook and help with stirring (your favorite) and other tasks. I'll just add that to my six-mile long to do list.

Your absolute favorite thing to do right now is drive. You are OBSESSED with driving, whether it's a car, truck, tractor, golf cart, hummer, boat or train. If it has a steering wheel, you want to drive! Your nanny has been taking you to the Transportation Museum during the week, which you love, since you get to play in all the cars. We let you "drive" the car in the driveway, which consists of you jumping up and down making zoom noises, turning the steering wheel, opening and closing the sunroof and turning the radio, lights and wipers on and off. And best of all, when you're at the farm or the ranch, you get to drive the golf cart, hummer, tractor and boat, which you can't get enough of.

In the last few months you have really started to get demanding. I think it stems from the fact that you are fiercely determined. There is absolutely no distracting or diverting you away from what you want. You are persistent and dogged in getting whatever it is you set your mind to, which I can't say is always a bad thing. I think it'll be a wonderful quality to have when you get older, but right now your dad and I don't really know what to do about it. When you want something, you let us know any way possible. That means if you don't have the words or the signs to get your point across, you scream. And boy, do I mean scream! If screaming doesn't work, then tantrums are thrown! It definitely makes us pay attention and most of the time you end up getting what you want because we're so shocked that such a tiny person can have such strong feelings about things (and we want to make you happy all the time). That's probably not the right move on our parts, but you are so determined! What is it going to be like when you hit the "terrible two's"? A friend told me that what we do (and let you get away with now) will determine how you act next year, which scares me to death. I think we're all going to have to work on patience in this house.

I hate to even say this for fear of something changing drastically, but you've made incredible strides in the sleep department. Just after you turned a year old (and we got back from vacation), we eliminated the bottle completely and you stopped waking in the middle of the night to eat. You also finally picked a lovey (a little black and white puppy) that you sleep with every night and for the most part, you sleep about 11 straight hours through the night. Every now and then we'll have a night where you wake up once or twice (which is to be expected), but you usually go back down very quickly without much help. It's absolutely wonderful and we can't believe what a difference it has made in all of our energy levels and moods! I am one happy mama these days! I think I forgot what a good night's sleep felt like.

You're also eating like a champ. I don't know if it was the Baby Led Weaning (or if you get it from us), but you are such an amazing eater! Breakfast is your favorite meal and you've been known to put away 4-5 pancakes at a sitting or 3 entire scrambled eggs plus turkey sausage and toast. It's wonderful watching you eat! You have started eating a bit less for dinner lately. Maybe you're just not as hungry or something (or maybe it's just a phase), but dinner is more of a struggle to get you to eat much. I think you're partly distracted by your dad and I both getting home around dinner and you don't want to be bothered by sitting still for more than a minute or two, so you swipe or throw everything off your tray and proclaim "all done!" The dogs love it. You also are developing a pretty serious sweet-tooth. You love anything and everything chocolate, which I know you get from me. Sorry.

So, Macadoodle, that's you in a nutshell. Although I just don't think there are enough words in the world to accurately describe just how amazing you are. You truly are the light of our lives and we are so incredibly blessed to be your parents. Every day just keeps getting better and better. I hope you never stop exploring, never stop learning and never stop going after what you want. You are absolutely amazing. Thank you for being mine.

He is definitely all boy! He sounds just like Max, into everything. I wish we lived closer for play dates. You definitely need to make a helper stand. It has made such a huge difference in the whining/needy department during making dinner time. Max can help and eat snacks as I am getting dinner ready. He usually ends up eating most his dinner before it's ready and isn't as hungry but at least he isn't whining.

I'm not acknowledging like half of this because I refuse to believe he's not an itty bitty baby anymore, but, my absolute favorite thing he does is the "all done" when he's in the car. The most hilarious!!